DUNN DEAL

June SawyersCHICAGO TRIBUNE

One of comedian Nora Dunn`s characters-fashion model Pat Stevens-once said that her favorite book was Vogue. Well, Pat might now wish to pivot gracefully toward a new book titled ''Nobody`s Rib,'' Dunn`s look at American culture. For more on the comedic storyteller and her evolving cast of characters, see the Cover Story inside.

''My brothers and sisters, like all brothers and sisters, are bound by a common, exclusive language, I suppose. Whenever we get together we still tell all of our experiences in the form of stories and characters, which is why I miss being with them so much, and probably the reason I chose to do what I do. Although somewhere, I`m sure, there is another explanation.''

So states Nora Dunn in her first book, ''Nobody`s Rib,'' a collection of short stories, interviews and sketches (HarperCollins paperback, $10). It`s a funny and occasionally poignant look at American culture as seen mostly through the eyes of women, full of small insights and offering wickedly satiric jabs at specific types of contemporary women.

Dunn`s comedy is character-driven, its humor derived from the juxtaposition of unusual situations and offbeat personalities. Sometimes the audience doesn`t know what to make of a comic who isn`t always telling jokes or spouting strings of one-liners. Dunn is more a humorous storyteller-an actress with a tale to tell-than a typical standup comic.

''I`ve always been sort of a half-hearted standup, I guess,'' she said recently while backstage at the Park West after making a benefit appearance for the Howard Brown Clinic, an AIDS research center. It`s a dilemma that has followed her throughout her career.

Born and raised in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago`s West Side, Dunn, 39, comes from a close-knit family of six siblings. Her brother Kevin has become a much-in-demand character actor, graduating from roles in Chicago theater to parts in such major movies as ''Mississippi Burning,'' ''Blue Steel'' and ''Only the Lonely.''

In 1981 Dunn moved to San Francisco and began to play the West Coast comedy circuit until she returned to Chicago two years later. While working as an waitress-and gathering plenty of material for her act-she honed her comedic skills in Chicago comedy clubs.

In 1985 Dunn received her big break and joined the cast of a revamped

''Saturday Night Live.'' She left the show in 1990. She received perhaps her greatest notoriety during her last season when she refused to appear on the same program with the foul-mouthed actor/comedian Andrew Dice Clay.

During her years on ''SNL,'' Dunn also pursued a movie career, securing small roles in ''Working Girl'' opposite Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford and ''Miami Blues'' with Alec Baldwin and Fred Ward. Her next appearance is in the upcoming ''Steppin` Out,'' starring Liza Minnelli.

Dunn`s entry into the literary world was more by accident than by design. ''I did a show in New York,'' she recalls. ''An editor from Harper & Row was at that show. He started watching me on `Saturday Night Live.` He decided after a couple of years to ask me to do a book. I`ve always written-short stories mostly-on and off.''

''Nobody`s Rib'' consists of characters that Dunn has created over the years, although most of the material, she notes, was written during the past 12 months.

Viewers of ''SNL'' are familiar with some of Dunn`s characters. There`s Ashly Ashley, a vacuous actress (''I think-and I do think, I often think, I think thinking plays a key role in the thought process''); Babette, an

''international sex kitten'' (''To have lived and loved, to have responded to the world with passion and not indifference, that is what I want. I want to have tasted all the ingredients at the salad bar, OK?''); and Pat Stevens, an empty-headed fashion model and occasional talk show host (''I am a voracious reader. My favorite book is `Vogue.` Month after month, year after year, I gobble up each volume. I like to think of my head as a big empty bucket, waiting to be filled with pictures, and some words.'')

Other characters include Liz Sweeney, an unctuous entertainer, prone to uttering outrageous remarks; Lew, a dishwasher and Joann, a quick-witted little girl.

Dunn says she doesn`t feel compelled to be funny all the time: That isn`t her style. Her humor is more sly, more subtle, more sophisticated. ''Nobody`s Rib'' is an extension of her club performances. It offers a mostly light-hearted romp through American pop culture, although later chapters

occasionally delve into thoughtful, slightly darker territory.

In recent years, Dunn`s interest in working behind the camera has intensified. At the Park West benefit, she presented a short film-written by her and directed by Chicago filmmaker Tom Radtke-titled ''Harpo, Illinois: An American Tragedy.'' The literary equivalent appears in ''Nobody`s Rib.''

''Harpo, Illinois'' is a tongue-in-cheek tale of an English documentary filmmaker who travels to the American heartland in search of ''the death of small-town American life in the 20th Century.'' He stumbles across backwater Harpo, population six.

Like all imaginary towns, it is populated by an oddball assortment of characters: Rita Frittes, an unemployed scat singer; Fred Baldwin, a soda jerk and Rita`s former husband who runs a soda parlor called the Triple Scoop; and an aspiring street-corner junkie-portrayed to perfection by Dunn with an intense and hilarious nervous energy-who has ''never scored.''

''Every time I see (the film), I see some flaws in it,'' Dunn says.

''There are certain characters that should have been taken out. Some of it worked and some of it didn`t. It makes me want to do another one.'' But, she adds, ''I like those characters a lot.''

Dunn is trying to produce a feature film with her husband, screenwriter Ray Hutcherson. ''There`s nothing concrete,'' she says. ''I have two short films that I`ve done. My experiences on `Saturday Night Live` involved a lot of producing. Every sketch that we wrote we also had to produce. I don`t know if anything can ever be harder than doing that show, as far as just the emotional stress and the amount of effort put into getting something done.''

Dunn finds encouragement in the work of filmmaker Spike Lee who, she suggests, has helped to turn moviemaking into a personal statement. ''Not that I`m the biggest fan of Spike Lee,'' she says, ''but I do love what he`s done. He broke through and made his movies his way. He has a book out and he talks about demystifying the whole thing. (Making movies) is not that big a deal,'' she says. ''I don`t know the technical aspects of it that well but I know people who do.''

Dunn is performing her one-woman ''Nobody`s Rib'' show in selected cities before embarking on a book tour. (There are no plans to bring the show to Chicago.)

''It`s derived from the book,'' says Dunn about her 80-minute act, which features such popular Dunn creations as Babette, the addle-brained ''sex kitten'' who found her identity as a ''wooman'' in France.

''Babette is much different now,'' Dunn says. ''She`s not happy with her work. So she goes to Hollywood. To play a strong character she plays in

`Female Firefighter, Centerfold USA` and then she goes on to a long list of all these movies-exploitative movies, one after another. Then she becomes a tough cop. There`s more insight than in the book. In the book I just have her being interviewed.''

Showtime, the cable channel, has expressed an interest in broadcasting the show. Dunn, however, has her doubts about bringing ''Nobody`s Rib'' to the small screen, fearing that she may have to make it less ''feminine'' to appeal to a broader audience. ''It really is about women,'' she says. ''I`m not sure if it really belongs on television.''

Dunn is not happy with the direction women are heading in the `90s although she can`t really put her finger on it. ''I don`t feel that good about women right now,'' she says. ''I think we`re just in a real chaotic state.''

Dunn says she is constantly fighting the tendency of producers to make her characters more appealing. '' (They say) `Do more Pat Stevens. I want to see more Pat Stevens.''` The character of Pat Stevens, Dunn says, is ''a lot darker. She`s a lot meaner. I don`t want her to be like the `Church Lady.` I don`t want her to be that likable. When I did her at that Michael Jordan show,'' she says, referring to the program at the Chicago Theatre in July honoring the Bulls` basketball star, ''she doesn`t even know how to pronounce racism. She said it as `raa-cee-sum,''` says Dunn, laughing.

''I mean I like her. I don`t want to get real heavy about it. Now I`m feeling that she has to be expressing some fears about the future. She flourished in the `80s but she`s not going to flourish in the `90s.''

Where do these characters come from?

''Joann was just a doll I had when I was little. Lew-I don`t know where Lew came from,'' she says. Lew is a 55-year-old man who lives with his sister, Alice. ''He was first the character (of) Alice. She really couldn`t talk much. She was just really-she`s not retarded but she just can`t really talk. So I couldn`t really do that much with her. So Lew kind of came out as her brother. I`m still working on getting him right.''